King's Business - 1914-01

THE KING’S BUSINESS

36

sins, and while opening his heart to the Saviour closed' his conversation by asking with deep pathos, in trembling tones (while the tears were glistening in his eyes) : “ Why didn’t you tell us the story sooner; why didn’t you let us know?” “ How shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?” , Dr. H oward. A. Johnston, when asked what had most' impressed him in his recent tour of mission fields, replied; “ The glad self-sacrifice o f Christians, in order to have wherewith to give the Gospel,” and then he cited the,case of a pastor of Hang Chow, recently offered three times: his pastoral sal­ ary to take charge of public schools. He declined, though he has a family to support on his present income of $7.50 a month, saying: “ China must have the Gospel though I starve.” . • - . F. C. Glass, missionary in Brazil, won the ear of a group o f soldiers ,and sailors, on detailed duty two thousand miles up the Amazon, with his Graphaphone, tactfully blending his entertainment into a Bible read­ ing. The third night one young sailor, lad, who showed particular interest, with wide open eyes, was intent on what I said, and when I ceased he broke the momentary silence which fell on us, exclaiming, “Well, my father and mother were ‘devotos’ (re­ ligious) people, but they ,never told me this. I never heard it before, and now I have listened to your words, and understand what it means, I can say, 1 am for it.” Dr. Arthur Sachs, professor in the Uni­ versity of Breslau, and himself a Jew, says, referring to Reformed Judaism: “ Every ‘liberal’ religion bears in ’ Itself the germs of death. Such are not able to give the individual or humanity as a whole the sup­ port needed for this life or the hope for the next. As soon as f religion becomes ‘liberal’ it begins to sink into mere philos­ ophy. Now no philosophical system has yet been able to satisfy the longing o f men, and one can safely prophesy that in the future it will also be so, because philos­

ophy springs from the human brain while religion represents revelation from God. All great spirits in all time have recognized the insufficiency of mere philosophy.” The Baptist Mission in Burma tells the story of a Karen lawyer, Ba Te, who was earning at his practice the salary of $103 a month—a splendid income for a Bur- man native. Feeling called to preach the Gospel, he deliberately gave up his profes­ sion, his salary, his home and his friends, and went out among the wild hill tribes on the Chinese border to do mission work. From this work o f border preaching he has been called to teach in the Burman Theo­ logical School, at a salary of $20 a month, just a fifth o f what he formerly made as a lawyer. Mr. Weinberg, o f Jaffa, a converted Jew­ ish worker, says that before he took that step he was a strict observer of Jewish tra­ ditions, but that he never felt any soul satisfaction, not even on the Day o f Atone­ ment when he went through all the Tal­ mudic ceremonies. He waved the cock thrice around his head, laid his hands upon it as he would on a sacrifice, repeated the prescribed words o f prayer, made the pen­ ance of being beaten formally with thirty- nine stripes, and yet was wretched and miserable. Thirty-five years ago he was converted, and since then has been sweetly at peace. Mr. George Crabtree, a missionary o f the Southern Presbyterian Church, is doing a unique work among the convicts o f the South. There are 25,000 such confined in foul-smelling cages (on wheels). Each of these cages contains eighteen prisoners, .who are packed in, night times, like fish in a barrel. They work hard all day, are poorly fed, and suffer from the heat and ill-ven- tilntion at night. Boys convicted of incon­ siderable offenses are often condemned to this experience, and frequently graduate as genuine criminals. Mr. Crabtree travels in a wagon which serves as bedroom and living room, and preaches in camp after

Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker